Recipient organisationEuropean Metal Recycling Limited
Funding£3.2M
PeriodAug 2022 — Mar 2025
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
The UK steel and cement industries are turning their own waste into a resource, rather than shipping it abroad or burying it in landfills. This matters because the UK currently exports most of its scrap steel for low-grade uses abroad, while domestic steelmakers need cleaner recycled material to decarbonise their products. Cement production also relies on virgin raw materials that generate large CO₂ emissions. The project addresses a gap in the industrial supply chain: how to process steel shredding residue and scrap into high-purity inputs that UK manufacturers can actually use, rather than landfilling them or selling them cheaply overseas. If successful, the research could transform two foundation industries—steel and cement—by embedding recycled content into premium products made in the UK. This would reduce carbon emissions, cut waste sent to landfill, and strengthen supply chains that were disrupted by Brexit and COVID-19. It would also create skilled jobs in economically depressed regions. The consortium’s high profile may shift public perception of these industries, attracting a more diverse workforce to sectors often seen as old-fashioned.
View original technical description
The UK produces around 11MT of scrap steel per annum. Around 2.6MT of this is used domestically to make higher performance steel products, whilst the remainder is exported in bulk, much of it for use in lower performance applications. However, the standard grades of recycled steel that are traded internationally do not meet the purity or value in use criteria required by premium UK steel makers as they start to decarbonise their products by increasing scrap addition rates. When operating at maximum capacity, there is scope for up to 6MT of recycled steel to be used domestically by current UK steel production facilities. This project will engineer value added products for a multistage supply chain within the UK, providing economic and employment gains in depressed areas whilst simultaneously decarbonising the production process. Cement manufacture also offers a significant opportunity to increase the utilisation of recycled materials, decrease CO2 emissions and embedded carbon, and to valorise the material supply chain. By using high mineral content alternative raw materials, derived from steel shredding residue, these can be realised in addition to other benefits relating to cost, supply chain robustness, and reduction of landfill material. Other positive impacts of the project will be delivered in key areas of political challenge for the UK, including: net-zero carbon and waste, levelling up the UK, clean air, growth in foundation sectors, quality products, supply chain stability post Brexit and COVID-19, international materials regulation and taxation. Benefits also stem from onshoring of material usage in value-added applications, compared to current business norms of landfilling up to 300KT of material per year and exporting lower value ferrous products. These benefits will be gained both at scale within the project, and through dissemination of outcomes to other players in the UK. Decarbonisation is a key objective for consortium members, with progress already made via their clear net zero commitments. This project enables the partners to deliver step-change decarbonisation through industrial symbiosis. Progress can be achieved more quickly and at greater scale when compared to conventional spending on IP-protected in-house single company development activities. The high profile of this project will help to transform the public perception of the steel, recycling, and cement industries in the UK, through demonstrating the commitment of these sectors to improving the environment. The opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation in these industries, will attract a new, more diverse generation of future leaders.
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